Language Detection with `language-detect`

The `language-detect` library provides a robust mechanism for detecting the language of a given text. This is especially useful for applications involving natural language processing, user input validation, and more. This guide introduces the core functionalities of the `language-detect` library, complete with code snippets and a sample application.

Getting Started

First, let’s install the `language-detect` library:

  npm install language-detect

Detecting Language

The primary function of this library is to detect the language of a given string. Here’s how to do it:

  const detect = require('language-detect');
  const text = "Bonjour tout le monde";
  console.log(detect(text)); // Output might be 'French'

API Examples

1. Get a Language’s ISO Code

To get the ISO 639-1 code of the detected language:

  const code = detect.getISOCode(text);
  console.log(code); // Output: 'fr'

2. List Supported Languages

To list all the languages that the `language-detect` library supports:

  const languages = detect.supportedLanguages();
  console.log(languages);

3. Get Detection Confidence

Retrieve the confidence score of the language detection:

  const result = detect.detectWithConfidence(text);
  console.log(result); // Output: { language: 'French', confidence: 0.98 }

4. Detect the Language of an Array of Texts

If you have multiple texts to analyze:

  const texts = ["Hola mundo", "Hello world", "Bonjour le monde"];
  const results = detect.bulkDetect(texts);
  console.log(results); // Output: ['Spanish', 'English', 'French']

5. Custom Language Model

Use a custom language model if you need specific language detection:

  const customModel = {"Dutch": {"sample": "language model here..." }};
  detect.setModel(customModel);
  console.log(detect("sample")); // Output: 'Dutch'

Sample Application

To showcase the capabilities of the `language-detect` library, let’s create a small application that takes user input and detects the language in real-time:

  const readline = require('readline');
  const detect = require('language-detect');

  const rl = readline.createInterface({
    input: process.stdin,
    output: process.stdout
  });

  rl.question('Enter text: ', (answer) => {
    const language = detect(answer);
    console.log(\`Detected language: \${language}\`);
    rl.close();
  });

Conclusion

The `language-detect` library is a powerful tool for natural language processing tasks, providing various APIs to detect and analyze languages effectively. Whether you need to build a multilingual application or analyze text data, this library offers the functionalities required to achieve your goals.

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